Doha rising

Doha is shaping up to be somewhat of a showpiece for contemporary architectural talent in the 21st century.

IM Pei’s Museum of Islamic Art is already considered among the best examples of modern Islamic architecture in the world, while French architect Jean Nouvel’s National Museum of Qatar is set to keep standards high in the Qatari capital.

Qatari firms could be forgiven for feeling slightly intimidated by the likes of Pei and Nouvel on their turf, after all few local architects have the name to compete with such global giants. But Ibrahim Mohamed Al Jaidah, director of veteran Qatar-based firm Arab Engineering Bureau (AEB) feels nothing of the sort.

“Qatar is going to become an encyclopaedia of architecture. In a decade’s time you will be able to take students from any architecture school in the world and show them the most contemporary architecture in the world in Doha,” he said.

“There is a new generation of architects that is going to schools now and seeing the work of architects like Pei – they will be the architects that will shape contemporary Gulf architecture,” he added.

Al Jaidah feels comfortable about the role of AEB in this future. Since taking over the company 1991,  AEB has grown from seven people in one small office to more than 400, scattered throughout the firm’s hubs in Doha, Kuala Lumpur and Manila. The firm has averaged 20-25% growth annually, and is currently undertaking projects from Malaysia to Cuba, with dozens scattered throughout the MENA region.

Al Jaidah is also an academic, publishing a book on Qatari architecture this year and speaking regularly on Gulf architecture. He sees AEB’s mission not only as being a successful and profitable company, but as a firm that will help to push forward modern Gulf design and establish a contemporary Arabic vernacular.

“The search for identity has become an important issue for the region, simply because we are such small nations and we are a minority within our own populations. With such dramatic and fast growth in the world, we could easily lose our identity,” he said.

Al Jaidah compares the varying architecture of the Gulf region to the variations in the language and dialects between residents of Gulf countries. Just as the language is subtly different, so the architecture of the GCC countries is distinct.

“Gulf architecture is a melting pot. Being on the shores, the people were travellers, they were merchants, so they brought up influences from Africa, from India, Iran and Asia. Then there are those from the interior, tribes that came from the Najd, and all of this mixed, created the Gulf architecture,” he explained.

“I’m hoping to publish one day a book that explains this in a simple manner, so that a layman could understand. These differences are very slight, if you glance at them they look similar but when you zoom in here are differences that make them unique.”

But this attention to detail is by no means purely academic. Al Jaidah has been able to extend his interest in the minutiae into his recent work, most notably into designing Qatar’s growing number of embassies.

The firm has so far designed the country’s diplomatic buildings in Yemen, Sudan, Egypt, Malaysia, Rome and Mauritania as well as consulates in Dubai and Jeddah. Most recently, AEB has been asked to design the embassies of other countries in Qatar, including Turkey, Yemen and Cuba.

“Our foreign minister is very happy not just because we use different architecture in different locations but because we know what it takes to do these embassies. Qatar wants a to reflect its identity and this is where we have been successful,” he explains.

When designing the embassies of other nations, Al Jaidah insists on visiting and studying the architecture of the country, and has had to travel to Turkey, Yemen and Morocco. Now AEB has bagged the contract for Cuba’s embassy in Doha, Al Jaidah plans to travel to Havana.

“I have to reflect their identity so I have to travel to these countries. This is what I did with the Turkish and Omani embassies, and Yemen, and soon I will travel to Cuba. It definitely takes us to interesting places,” he said.

“Naturally studying other people’s culture and history gives you a wonderful exposure. By going to these places your eyes are opened to them. You learn to deal with other consultants, and in some cases even open branches,” he said.

With this growth and expansion, one may wonder if AEB has felt the impact of the recession at all. Al Jaidah claims that while other firms in Qatar were firing people, and in some cases going under, AEB continued to work steadily and even hired new staff. He puts this down to large scale projects with the government and major developers that did not get axed during the financial crisis.

Al Jaidah also acknowledged that while Qatar did feel the pinch during the financial crisis, it did not suffer nearly as badly as parts of the UAE, or indeed the rest of the world.

“You don’t see cranes that are not moving in Qatar. All the developers have managed to continue,” he said.

“There is definitely a lot on the table in Qatar. It’s true that we are yet to see a lot of it on the ground, but we are looking at some massive jobs.”

The role of sustainability in this new development, both in Qatar and other strong markets like Saudi Arabia, is and will continue to be an important discussion for designers, developers and governments in the Middle East. Al Jaidah has already been involved in such debates in Qatar, and as one of the founding members of the Qatari Green Building Council (QGBC) has helped draw up the Qatar Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS) for the government.

But Al Jaidah feels strongly that designers do not only need high-tech technology to create sustainable buildings, he believes looking to the past is equally worthwhile. After all, people have been living in Qatar’s hot climate for centuries.

“Our ancestors were doing green buildings that would win certificates today. These guys had the choice to travel elsewhere if it was that bad, but instead they adapted the materials that they were building with and looked at orientation and scale. This was a happy place to live then, and we should learn from that,” he said.

“It’s our policy that in all our new designs we are going to be putting the very simple basis of sustainability in it, whether the client has requested it or not. It’s going to become our normal starting point. I want to see a site analysis before I even see a sketch. I don’t want to see thick glass blocks where the sun is extremely hot. I have been talking to my architects about this in the last few months and I think the results are going to start to show. “

It is this young, expanding generation of AEB architects that Al Jaidah hopes will continue to push the envelope in Qatar, both in terms of sustainability and contemporary Islamic design.

“When I took on the firm, AEB had a name and a heritage. Like all the international firms that you know about, I want AEB to keep going for generations after me,” he said.